Experimentations 19: The Universe in a Grain Sand
Excerpt from "Untitled" by Peter Burr, as seen in The Universe in a Grain of Sand
Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film, Program 19
The Universe in a Grain of Sand
Sunday February 23, 2025, 7:00pm
At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90057
Tickets: $15 general, $10 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members
https://link.dice.fm/Bf88e3b2f5ad
Los Angeles premiere!
Conversation following the screening with filmmakers Mark Levinson and Kate Balsley in person and others to be announced
A meditation by the award-winning filmmaker/physicist Mark Levinson (Particle Fever) on how we make sense of the world. Juxtaposing scientific developments with the works of artists, the visually rich film explores how both scientists and artists use their understanding of nature to create tools and representations to probe the deepest mysteries of the universe. This art-film crossed with creative documentary takes us on a journey from experimental film to the frontiers of quantum computing. Preceded by a few of the short experimental films incorporated in the feature by Levinson as the visual corollaries to points being made in the film. We’re delighted that one of these makers, Kate Balsley, will join us in person with two of her beautiful films.
Mark Levinson is the award-winning director of the documentary feature Particle Fever about the discovery of the Higgs boson. Before embarking on a film career, he earned a PhD in particle physics from UC Berkeley. In the film world he was a specialist in the post-production writing and recording of dialogue, working on over 40 feature films including The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Johnny Mnemonic and The Social Network. He directed the fiction film Prisoner of Time about two former Russian dissident artists after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most recently he directed The Bit Player about Claude Shannon, “The Father of Information Theory.” Mark won the inaugural Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.
Kate Balsley is a video artist, animator, screenwriter, and educator based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has a BFA in film studies and production from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an MFA in mass communication and media arts from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and is currently earning an MA in digital animation from Kennesaw State University. Her work includes narrative screenplays, experimental videos, and children’s films. She does not limit herself to a single subject or style, and her work has explored topics such as space exploration, sexual harassment, and our engagement with the natural world. She has been screened in venues such as the Museum of the Moving Image, the Anthology Film Archives, the REDCAT center, and the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. She strongly values education and prioritizes teaching above all else. She has taught film studies and production at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Facets Multimedia, Chicago Filmmakers, Lake Forest College, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is currently an Associate Professor of Film at Georgia Gwinnett College.
Curated by Adam Hyman
Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is Filmforum’s expansive film series and upcoming publication that investigates the ways that experimental and scientific films produce and question the visualization of the world. Combining artist films utilizing scientific imagery, science and natural history films, and films of indigenous and traditional knowledge, the series examines how science, nature, and technology films shape our understanding of humans, nature, gender, knowledge, and progress. The multi-venue public screening series presents analog and digital time-based media incorporating diverse scientific and experimental film traditions from across the globe. The series will include eighteen screenings between September 2024 and February 2025, with films and digital works from 1874 to today from around the world, multiple guests, panels and wonderful collaborations that will reveal the possibilities and circumstances of cinema in this realm. For more, see www.filmforumexperimentations.org
Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit: pst.art.
Major support for Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is provided by the Getty Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional Support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.
The Universe in a Grain of Sand
The Universe in a Grain of Sand
By Mark Levinson
USA, 2024, digital color, sound, 73 min.
Los Angeles premiere!
How do we make sense of the world around us? Our understanding of nature is shaped by the tools we create to observe it. Both scientists and artists have pushed the frontiers of understanding through an astounding array of human ingenuity and innovation: from glassmaking to semiconductors; from Leibniz’s 17th century binary systems to the art of M.C. Escher; from the diverse boat-building techniques of First Nations peoples to the latest advances in computer generated art and quantum computing. Featuring a dazzling integration of artwork and experimental cinema – Picasso to Hilma af Klint to Stan Brakhage – interwoven with scientists striving to understand the deepest mysteries of nature, the award-winning director Mark Levinson (Particle Fever) celebrates the transcendent power of the imagination to make sense of the universe.
Cosmos Obscura
Cosmos Obscura
By Kate Balsley; Music by Irina Escalante Chernova
2018, digital, b&w, sound, 4:00
This video contains flashing images.
In Cosmos Obscura, the universe is at once known and unknowable. New patterns, rhythms and metaphors are born from old ones, and familiar celestial bodies are refracted into strange and unusual forms.
The visuals were created from photographs taken from the Voyager II spacecraft. Photographs of the planets and their moons were abstracted and animated in order to create various patterns, rhythms and images. Other images were inspired by astronomical charts and diagrams, and were created through Adobe Photoshop and After Effects.
The musical work was originally created for 8 channels and subsequently adapted to the stereo version. The music focuses on the work from different backgrounds with the noises of nature and those which have an electronic source. Different techniques of electronic experimentation are used such as subtractive synthesis for filtering and modeling of the white noise, as well as granular synthesis, additive synthesis, phase vocoder; in addition to effects with some filters. Technique: Sound Forge 4.5, Ableton Live, Keyboard DX-7 and Soprano voice.
Microspectrum
Microspectrum
By Kate Balsley
2016, digital, color, sound, 1:30
A surreal journey through the natural world. Leaves, flowers and other organic materials are abstracted and exist as shapes, forms, colors and textures. Nature is at once strange and beautiful. Microspectrum invites the viewer to reflect upon its complexities. Winner of the Jury Award at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival.